Clayton dodges Sen. Ossoff on who won 2020 election during confirmation hearing, goes silent

Walter "Jay" Clayton, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next Director of National Intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard's departure, faced tough questioning from Sen. Jon Ossoff during his contentious confirmation hearing about the winner of the 2020 presidential election. "I'm not going to get into that with you," Clayton shot back, to which the Georgia Democrat reminded him that this was a job interview and that it was his obligation to be honest and forthright with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Ossoff then posed the question again, and Clayton continued to evade with a confounded face, gesturing his frustration with his hands. He kept answering in various forms: "I'm not going to engage in political theatre," "I'm not going to get into that with you," "I think I've answered the question," "We can keep doing this," and at one point simply going silent. Clayton is currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, having previously served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ossoff pointed out that Clayton was asking for the senators' support to lead America's intelligence community but refused to answer a simple question about the 2020 election. "You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America's intelligence community?" Ossoff said. "Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?"

This was not the only fractious moment during the exchange. Ossoff also pressed Clayton on Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, convicted in Clayton's own district of working with the Sinaloa cartel to flood the United States with cocaine—and later pardoned by Trump. "I believe we just discussed that, the president provided a pardon," Clayton said, after initially replying, "I don't remember the specifics of that case."

Clayton's nomination has been mired in controversy from the start, after the president delayed his own pick's original hearing at the last minute, saying he wouldn't approve a renewal of the government's spy powers unless Congress also passed his SAVE America Act. Clayton is still likely to be confirmed in a Republican-controlled Senate. The committee is expected to vote on his nomination next week, after which it will advance to the full Senate floor.